While firms like Sequoia Capital and Andreessen Horowitzhave raised massive amounts to invest in startups, a veteran venture capitalist is seeing success with a different model. Think of Alan Patricof's Greycroft Partners as a lean VC.

The firm has raised smaller funds and invests in earlier stage companies than many venture capitalists, and is generating solid returns for its investors just six years after raising its first fund, writes Omar Akhtar of Fortune.

"We've committed to a small fund. That's the unique part of it," Patricof, a 40-year VC who counts Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL) among his former portfolio companies, tells Akhtar. "And I think it's working."

The firm's investment strategy is based on the idea that startups need less capital now, in the days of cloud computing and the lean startup, than they did a decade ago, when starting a tech company meant big investments in equipment and people.

Greycroft has raised three funds of $75 million, $130 million, and $175 million, and has seen 11 profitable exits since raising its first fund in 2006. So far, the venture firm has been able to return three times the money investors put into its first fund, and it still has cash from that fund left to invest.

Patricof's fund does things a little differently from most venture capital firms. Greycroft invests comparatively small amounts -- between $500,000 and $5 million -- in the early stage funding for a startup. The firm does not require a board seat, it almost always insists on bringing in a larger fund to partner with, and the end goal is for the startup to be acquired by a larger company rather than go public.

Since coming aboard with Upstart’s parent company, Kent has covered sustainability and business, entrepreneurs, technology, and venture capital. Now, he covers all the ways upstart businesses get their money.

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